Effective cooling of data centers and other facilities operating telecommunications or computer equipment is a growing field of endeavor. Electronic components that operate on the flow of electricity create heat in the process of utilizing electrical flow. Modern electronic equipment is fast and powerful, but generally consumes substantially more power than systems of only a few years ago, and therefore creates more heat in operation. Increased power consumption creates an increased need for cooling with regard to electronic equipment. Electrical consumption and associated costs are skyrocketing, and many facilities are experiencing problems in sourcing sufficient power required to cool modern electronic components as is needed to prevent thermal damage to the equipment.
Cooling systems often utilize a water tower, or compressor type systems, or other sealed systems to create chill. This may be transferred into the air of the environment where electronic equipment is operating by means of heat exchangers in a closed loop system with either glycol or water, or by supply from the compressor. Air handlers are usually placed directly in the computer environment and are positioned in what are thought to be strategic locations. Air handler systems are also utilized as the primary air filtration device to remove airborne contaminants. A common practice has been to locate air handler units near electronic equipment that produce the most heat within the controlled environment. The purpose is to ensure plentiful cooling air is delivered to cool the equipment with highest heat output. The air conditioning units in that environment are commonly referred to as “air handlers”. Various systems have been proposed for cooling of computer and telecommunications equipment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,112,131 to Rasmussen et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,366 to Fink, U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. US2006/0260338 to VanGilder et al, U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. US2005/0237716 to Chu et al, and U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. US2005/0193761 to Vogel et al, are directed to various methods and systems having been proposed, all of which are hereby incorporated herein for reference.
In the modern world, medical records, governments, education, communications, transportation, banking, and all manner of other businesses have become increasingly dependent on computer equipment to communicate, and to process and store vital data. Many companies need to upgrade to modern equipment that is faster and more reliable in order to meet increasing information and communication demands. The United States Department of Energy estimates that Data Centers and Communication Centers currently account for about 2% of the total electrical power consumed in the USA. The report states that 45-billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy were utilized in the USA to operate computer data centers during 2005. The cost of that energy exceeded $2.7-billion dollars for electrical energy utilized by data centers. Energy costs are rising, and energy utilized by communications and data centers is expected to increase exponentially as equipment becomes more compact and powerful, and as the reliance on electronic systems increases. Construction planning estimates indicate that total square footage of facilities utilized to house and operate data and communications equipment will quadruple within the next ten years. With faster equipment and miniaturization continuing, more power consuming equipment can be installed in a given space. Power requirements to operate newer electronic equipment have increased exponentially over requirements for equipment of only a few years ago. As a result of these changes, a new problem has surfaced, one that did not exist even five years ago. Many facilities are now finding that with the increased development in surrounding areas, and due to their own power requirements, that their facilities are already utilizing 100% of the electrical power that the facility power systems are capable of handling and/or that is available to the facility from the electrical utility. Problems related to electrical power shortages are becoming increasingly common. The situation has become the focus of most industry publications and information forums such as the Uptime Institute. Each new generation of equipment is faster, and each requires more power. With components being made smaller and smaller, more heat generating equipment can be installed in a given area. This has resulted in a massive increase in electricity consumption by facilities that were built with consideration and infrastructure support designed for electronic equipment that consumes less power. The increased density and speed of newer electronic equipment creates increasingly more heat, resulting in the need for increased cooling capacity to prevent thermal failure of the electronic equipment. The electricity required for cooling electronic data and telecommunications equipment can consume as much as half of the total electrical power utilized at facilities operating modern equipment. Many facilities simply do not have the power distribution infrastructure to obtain enough electricity nor adequate cooling efficiency to meet the increased heat output of new electronic equipment.
Older facilities are often unable to safely distribute sufficient electricity through existing electrical wiring systems in their buildings. Retrofit to meet the demand required by modern communication and data processing equipment is simply not possible without having to take the equipment offline. Having adequate power and distribution capabilities within the facility is not a total solution. If the cooling is inefficiently or ineffectively provided to the equipment, thermal failure of expensive components can result in communications and business interruption. Many organizations operating data center facilities are now forced to make a choice between retrofitting their existing facility (which may not even be possible), or moving to a newer facility that is better designed to enable use of modern electronic equipment, or finally to outsource their entire data center operations. Moving operations from one telecommunications or data center facility to another is very expensive. Operators of such facilities may perceive that there are no other options that will enable them to take advantage of utilizing the newer faster equipment. As a result of the huge initial investment involved, many companies are forced to outsource the housing and operation of their data and telecommunications systems to a third party company. This has often proven to be of no benefit since the outsource company may suffer from the same disadvantages and inadequacies as the companies that they serve.
Companies that offer data center facility space and infrastructure systems to other companies are referred to as “co-locations” wherein many companies may place equipment, or lease equipment owned by the co-location company. The co-location company is responsible to ensure necessary infrastructure systems are available including abundant electrical power, backup power systems, a clean operating environment, security, fire control, and necessary cooling to appropriately cool heat producing electrical equipment. After the catastrophe of Sep. 11, 2001 in which the New York Trade Center buildings were destroyed, the economic impact of the situation spread to include the loss of vital data. As a result, the United States government instituted a series of regulations under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). It was designed to ensure that vital information affecting the economy and national security were well protected, and that vital data such as Stock Exchange data, transportation data such as air traffic control systems, banking data, medical data, and other critically vital info are available at all times. This lead to construction of many new data center facilities. The fact that electronic equipment will eventually fail demanded the need for backup systems that are often located in other facilities and which are often located in other parts of the Country to ensure that the vital data would be available even in the event of a catastrophe at any one or more of their facilities. Backup systems within the same facility as the primary systems could be rendered useless at the same time in the event of a catastrophe such as a flood or fire. The need for redundancy has led to the need for more data centers, and businesses now have to sponsor multiple data center facilities to ensure that critical communications and data availability are uninterrupted. Suddenly, to ensure that the vital information available, there became a need for individual companies to operate two, three, four, or more data centers at a tremendous cost, and huge increase in energy demand. Industry journals document the fact that many companies in fact must move their telecommunications and data center operations in order to obtain a basis for consistent system reliability and access to vital communications and data. Further legislation enacted as a component of the Homeland Security may require costly modification of existing operational procedures or facilities, as a result of increased concerns about data security and availability. Building a new facility may take years. Uptime and system reliability can disappear in an instant if a catastrophe occurs, cutting off vital communications and data accessibility, at any time and without warning. Moving to a new facility, or switching over to new equipment is a process called “migration”. It is a slow, arduous process that may in itself cause system outages in which vital data could be lost. Unable to tolerate down time for any reason, companies were forced to create and operate multiple data center sites, or to outsource their data and communication requirements.
Modern data centers can cost upwards of $1000 per square foot to develop and build. Special site preparation, establishing a controlled environment envelope, special air quality control systems, security controls, specialized power distribution, customized cable layouts and links to networks and telecommunications ports are all required. Sometimes an access flooring system is installed, while at other facilities, equipment may be placed directly on the structural floor with wiring placement located overhead. That is the shell of a data center facility. Added to this are special cooling systems, filtration, backup power, and miles of cabling and/or fiber optics. Fire suppression and warning and control systems must be installed, as well as other disaster controls such as fluid leak detection sensors and controls, emergency cooling, and even seismic bracing is required in some regions and tall buildings. Facilities operating modern electronic systems may contain equipment valued at $2,000,000 or more for every 1,000 square feet of telecommunications or data center floor space. Thus, the cost to provide floor space in a modern specialized facility may exceed $10,000 for the floor space required to install each rack of electronic equipment. If the racks cannot be completely populated with equipment, the cost of floor space per rack can exceed $20,000 per rack.
Beyond the huge cost to construct the facility and populate it with electronic equipment and auxiliary power systems, most companies spend about 10% of the startup cost each year thereafter just to maintain the facility and keep equipment up to date and operational. The cost is indeed huge. If one were to ask any company what is the most valuable thing housed in their data center, they will typically answer that it is not the building, nor in the computers, networking, or telecommunications equipment. Rather, the most valuable thing is the communications capability provided by the equipment, and the data that is processed and stored within the electronic equipment. Modern society has become an information dependent society in virtually every aspect of communications, commerce, government and transportation. Data center industry journals are indicating a there will likely be a 400% increase in constructed data center square footage over the next ten years. Companies and institutions are making huge investment toward assuring communication access and to have their vital data information available at all times.
Once the facility is built, there is simply no absolutely effective way to ensure that all of the communications systems, network systems and all of the data equipment will operate effectively and be available 100% of the time. Many companies now must have information availability 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, 365-days per year, year after year. Toward the end of assuring data or communications availability, companies are left with no choice but to build multiple data centers operating concurrently which support the same dataset, just in case something happens that would otherwise interrupt the systems operation at one or more of the facilities. Government agencies and large businesses such as Microsoft, Google, EBAY, General Electric, NASA, Bank of America, etc. have mission critical information or communications requirements, and must sponsor and maintain multiple facilities at a cost of many hundreds of millions of dollars each. The problem is even more expensive for global enterprises operating telecommunications and data center facilities in other Countries.
Redundant telecommunications, networking, and data processing and storage electronic systems are often required to maintain operations in the event of an outage or disaster. A single facility may have 2, 3, 4, or even 5 unique sources of electrical power. Some are designed to be temporary, for emergency use. Others are viewed as primary sources, necessary to support long-term operation. Water for humidification control and cooling may be obtained from the city, while others may obtain groundwater, using the municipal utility as backup. Some companies are now generating their own electricity in the interest of becoming independent of the public utility or because the local utility company simply cannot consistently provide enough “clean” power to handle the load requirement during peak operational periods. Additionally, Federal Laws have been instituted to ensure that vital records are maintained. Protection of personal identity and health information is a key concern. Banking and transportation information are critical in the global economy. As an example, passenger manifests and immigrations and customs records must be constantly available and accessible around the world and in real time. New government regulations stipulate penalties for interruption of communications services or data availability outages if the data is necessary to interstate business, transportation, banking, security, medical, etc. Vital enterprises have vital data.
Thus it can be seen that continuing improvements to methods and systems for cooling computer data center and telecom equipment are desirable.